Gut Investigations

Abdominal CT Scan

A CT scan is a sophisticated x-ray which involves older children lying still in a machine for around 30-60 minutes but sometimes less time and younger children would probably need an anaesthetic to keep them still.The CT scan of the abdomen involves an amount of radiation, which is relatively significant and therefore a CT scan is not performed very often for abdominal investigation and generally we tend to move towards an abdominal MRI scan (please see MRI scan section).

A CT scan can help, however, in determining the structures of intraabdominal organs, including the gut, and can also help show up blood vessels if we suspect a bleeding area in the gut. Intravenous medicine to help with that can sometimes be helpful, which is administered via an intravenous cannula.